Life As A Habit
by RantWaitingToHappen
Summary: Tony's living a double life. Gibbs won't admit he's in love. The team is in awe. Abby and Duck see through everything, and somehow life will never be the same. CompetenthurtTony! Tibbs! SLASH. Lots of team bonding/interaction. PLEASE R&R!
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Okay, here's the deal, I've read a GAZILLION fics, all Tony focused, and RARELY do I come across the oh so lovely competent Anthony DiNozzo story(yes, I am obsessed)! It upset me to know that not many people think much more of him than helpless and in need of protection! And my current fic which I am working on still, was supposed to showcase his awesome competent-ness but it's veered more toward his past and his new relationship with Gibbs and dealing with a murderous psycho who's crazy about him (and in general) and it's turned into (and I hate to say this) another semi-in-need-of-protection-from-gibbs-fic. (BTW, TO EVERYONE READING THAT ONE, IM STILL WORKING ON IT! I just had to write this cause I couldn't get it out of my head and continue my other fic otherwise .) Which is fine, I don't mind, because I hafta' admit, those are my favorite type of fics :p And therefore, because of my insane (unhealthy) love for said fics, but my constant need for competent Tony, I am writing this! Now, if you've read my other fic (**Life As We Knew It**) then you'll be all 'what? this is starting practically the same way -.- are you dooping us into reading the SAME story?' trust me, I'm not! I know the begining sounds very familiar but after the teams initial complaining it gets more original! (it's the same three weeks vacation thing turned long again, but only because that was the initial idea for THIS story but I ended up using it for my other story as well, which was published earlier, so, sorry for any confusion!) Tony whump will obviously be included, (in large portions, but not enough to keep him tied down to the hospital, and away from all the plot and action, I hate that) but Tony will be super competent. I hope you guys enjoy it, sorry for the gigantic, extra-long authors' note, I couldn't seem to help myself. =)

AU, I guess: Umm, Kate never died, but Ziva did join the team. Ok, that's all, not a major biggy, I think. Oh, and Tony's not who he says he is. Still damn hot though ;) Oh, and plenty of SLASH headed your way! Possible MPREG later on, depends on you guys. Not even sure if I should continue with this one. Again, that depends on if a majority of you guys would like more?

NOW on to the story...Enjoy!

**ONE. **

Kate groaned. "I can't believe the words are coming out of my mouth, but I can't wait for Tony to come back this Monday!"

"Same here," McGee nodded eagerly, as he packed his things, ready to go home for the weekend. "These last three weeks have been God awful."

Gibbs' team had gotten a three weeks paid vacation, as mandatory from the director, after a particularly brutal case; that had been six weeks ago. Relaxed from their individual vacation times, the team had come back, replenished. All of course, except for one Anthony DiNozzo. He'd gone off to Florida where there had later been a hurricane, and all planes had to be grounded—this lasted about three weeks.

At first, hearing that Tony would be gone an extra three weeks had made Kate grin, and she'd mocked him over the telephone. McGee had done his own share of mocking, and the two had spoken to him that morning for about ten minutes, before Gibbs had gripped the phone from their prying hands and barked, "BACK TO WORK!"

Ziva hefted her bag over her shoulder, powering down her computer simultaneously. "I too cannot await Tonys' arrival. Gibbs has been extra brutal these past couple of weeks." She added to the conversation, getting twin nods of agreement from her colleagues.

The three walked toward the elevator together, glad they'd all finished their reports and were able to go home, having left the paperwork on their grumpy boss' desk.

"I didn't realize how much of a buffer Tony really was, 'till he was gone." McGee cringed, remembering how Gibbs had nearly made him wet his pants, during the case just two days before. McGee had naively made a redundant remark about some statistic he'd read about, at a crime scene they'd been revisiting, and Gibbs had laid into him like a bulldog with a bone.

Usually, when McGee started going on and on about an inane subject, Tony was there to call him "McGeek" and then start rambling on about a movie—thus redirecting Gibbs anger onto himself. Before, Tim had always been annoyed at Tonys' interruptions, never having noticed that he was in fact shielding him from Gibbs temperament; not to mention the head slaps. Timothy rubbed the back of his head subconsciously; he didn't think he'd ever received as many head slaps in his entire three years here at NCIS as he had in the mere span of those last three weeks!

"Agreed." Ziva rubbed the back of her own head, yes, Gibbs head slaps were a thing to be remembered. "I actually miss Tony and his humor. The bullpen has been more dreadful than a cemetery."

Gibbs had not been happy without his senior field agent around, and if Gibbs wasn't happy, neither was anyone within a two point five mile radius of him, which included not only his team, but a lot of the NCIS special agents in the building, the director, Ducky, Palmer, and even Abby wasn't happy! And she was usually always in a chipper mood.

McGee and Kate nodded and they all parted ways in the parking lot, heading to their individual vehicles.

Tony walked into his empty apartment at almost four am on a Saturday morning, stretching, cracking a few bones in the process. He'd been gone a month and maybe about a week, so his frigde wasn't stocked anymore, and a light sheet of dust coated almost every surface in his apartment. He never paid for a cleaning lady, because, well, call him paranoid, but why would anyone let a stranger into their home in the middle of the day while they weren't there?

It wasn't even that he had something monetary he thought someone would want to steal-he lived in a relatively rent controlled one room apartment in a semi-bad neighborhood-who'd look at his house and think "Oh yeah, valuable stuff in there to pawn!" Yeah, no.

It was his privacy that he didn't enjoy being violated. For someone who ran into the office every Monday morning bragging about his latest conquest, Anthnony DiNozzo was an extremely private person. He knew for sure that no one from his team at NCIS had ever been to his apartment-not even Gibbs. Tony went to his cupboard and rummaged in there for a cup of ramen noodles, grinning when he found the last one at the very back, and sat at his kitchen counter, waiting for the noodles to cook in his tiny microwave.

He wondered briefly how the team had faired without him. It was weird, but he'd actually missed them. He couldn't for the life of him remember the last time he'd honest-to-God missed someone.

DING!

"Foooood!" he jumped off the counter-he also couldn't remember the last time he'd been this excited for ramen noodles. Then again, he hadn't eaten regularly in the last month. He'd skipped meals, living off granola bars Haley pestered him to eat, and the occasional health-nut smoothy Luke kept shoving down his throat. Suffice to say, Tony had lost a lot of weight, which he'd made up for in muscle. Three months ago he'd been able to belly dance, now, his stomach was so flat, it was hard enough to punch and say 'Ouch!' on.

He was kind of glad to be back; solving cases legally had to be easier than what his team back at The Program did. Undercover was practically their motto over there. At NCIS though, it wasn't often he had to go undercover. In truth, he'd felt like he was undercover playing undercover, if that made any sense. Having to downplay certain skills for no one to get suspicious was tough a lot of the time. Like that case with Jeffrey. Of course Tony had known he was the killer all along, and not the other guy-despite appearances, Tony hadn't been fooled by the act. What good would be he at his job otherwise?

He'd left a few clues he knew Gibbs and Kate would know to follow easily, hoping he wasn't over estimating either of their capabilities, and kept leading Jeffrey on a line, telling him about the places they'd go, the martinis' they'd be drinking, all the money they'd have, Jesus, they'd be rolling in it! Convincible, yeah?

Then in the car, he'd had a very small moment of doubt. Unbeknown to Gibbs or the team, he did actually know how to maneuvere an airplane, and with the connections he'd gathered over the years, he could've gotten that plane ready for them in about an hour, tops. So, no, he really hadn't been bluffing when he'd told Jeffrey they could run away together with all the money, and for a split minute, he'd thought, _I could get away with this_.

Yeah, not his greatest moment, even he had to admit. Running away with the bad guy? Big No-no. But it had been a tempting offer. To leave his currently hectic life with a wad of cash and a vague destination in mind? Easily the best deal he'd gotten in years.

His point being though, that it hadn't been sheer luck when he'd just happened to pull the trigger before Jeffrey had even been able to make a mark on him. Not that hard to have your gun in your hand already prepared, when you knew the guy in the backseat had a tendency to play with knives.

The hardest, though had been the undercover OP he'd done with Ziva, when they'd posed as a pregnant couple of assasins-try saying that three times fast. Knowing how to untie your restraints and kick the bad guys ass was one thing, but knowing how to be patient and wait for your team to get you out of this mess was another thing entirely. And in that case, he hadn't been able to wait. Having kicked the mans ass while still tied to the chair? That had just been icing on the cake.

Tony slurped the last of his noodles and threw away the plastic cup. Usually it would've taken at least two cups of ramen noodles and an order of orange chicken from the downstairs chineese place and maybe some white rice to fill him up, but after a month of drastically changing his eating habits, he'd just barely managed to finish that one cup before calling it quits.

He looked at his clock on the kitchen wall, it read 4:56am. He'd slept almost an entire day on the trip back, so sleep was pretty much out of the question. The time zones were hard to get used to now that he was back in DC. He might've lied to the team about where he'd been the last month or so. No, that's not right, he'd definately lied about his location; even shut off his regular work phone so that Abby wouldn't be able to track his signal and realize that he hadn't been in Florida lounging by a pool, but in Tokyo, Japan.

RING! RING! RING!

Tony nearly jumped at the familiar ringtone of his work cell in his pocket. He'd almost forgotten he'd turned it back on when his flight landed. He looked at the screen. Oh. "DiNo-"

"I know who it is, you think I'd just mark a random number on my phone and cross my fingers, see who answers?" Oh Abby; he'd missed her. "Why haven't you picked up your phone mister? You know how worried sick I've been? You didn't reply to my emails, phone calls, texts! You are in so much trouble, Anthony DiNozzo! And what are you doing up so late anyway? Or, like, so early, because that's what I am, I'm up early to go jogging with Sister Clarissa. Gotta keep my delicate figure, you know." She digressed.

Tony chuckled. "Can I come with you guys? I just got back and I can't really sleep. I'll tell you everything on the run, yeah?" If she said yes, he was officially off the hook, if not, then he was in for it on Monday.

After a small pause, wherein Abby seemed to be considering it greatly, she nodded.

"Is that a nod yes?" he asked, knowing his friend all too well by now.

She nodded again.

"Awesome. I'll be over in fifteen."

"You've got ten." she replied in her military drill sergeant voice, hanging up the phone a' la' mode Gibbs.

Tony laughed. Yeah, he had missed this place, afterall. He ran to get ready, changing into basketball shorts and a light t-shirt.

After their light jog, the three sat at Abbys kitchen table, talking over drinks.

"You've lost some weight." Sister Clarissa noted, sipping her tea.

"Yeah, everyone in Florida's like, on this crazy healthkick, figured I'd join too. Granola bars are my new chocolate bar." he grinned.

"Woah," Abby looked genuinely surprised. "Kate's been bugging at you to go on a diet for months; which, by the way, you so didn't need 'cause you looked awesome before, but it totally didn't hurt." she winked, making Tony snicker and the nun blush.

"Why thank you Miss Scutio."

"My pleasure. Now," she sat at the table to join the two, handing Tony a cup of coffee. "How was it? Didja' miss me? I missed you. And don't be fooled by Bossman and the rest of the team. They'll be all blase' about you coming back, but it's complere BS. Gibbs has been super mean since you didn't come back, Ducky's been soooo mopey it's sad, and the team is super lost without ya'.

"Like, okay, Kate, she was handed your responsibilities as senior field agent for the last three weeks you were gone and Gibbs was soooo pissed-excuse my language." she paused to give Sister Clarissa an apologetic look, and continued. "I love that woman, but she kept forgetting to gas the trunk beforehand, all those extra reports you fill before and after a case-we don't have any clue as to where you get the time to do those, Tony, I swear-and she kept complaining everytime she had to stay a few hours later to spellcheck the teams overall reports and fix a few things, which she skimmed on, so the Director ended up giving 'em back and totally embarrasing team Gibbs bigtime in front of everyone in the bullpen. And urgh, everything was super off without you there, Tony. Gibbs was extra grumpy, Kate was B-I-T-C-H-Y-"

Sister Clarissa giggled, "I can spell Abigail."

Tony snickered, shoulders shaking, at Abbys' expense, as she blushed.

"Well," she cleared her throat, "Timmy-Oh poor Timmy! He was stuck between a rock and a hard place. Kate was being all bossy, and Gibbs was being an extra brand of Gibbs, and Ziva was...threatening everyone with paperclips and your mighty mouse stapler." she cringed. Yeah, they had all been wise enough to take her threats very seriously at this point. "And, well, they're going to act like it was nothing, but you know the truth now!" she finished, looking quite proud of herself.

Tony smiled. "That's good; I missed you guys too."

"But in all seriousness, I was wondering, how do you make time to do all the senior field agent duties? I never knew you did all that stuff." she awed.

Tony shrugged, "Having no social life outside of work helps a lot." he grinned cheekily.

Abby laughed. "Hey, if you guys aren't busy I know this cute Cafe' downtown with like, the best breakfast omlets ever."

Tony and Sister Clarissa both nodded, even though Tony wasn't particularly hungry, he'd probably just end up picking at Abbys food. "Sounds good."

Monday morning came round soon enough and Tony...didn't want to get out of bed. He'd spent all day Saturday with Abby and the nun, then they'd parted ways, and Abby had taken him shopping at this new clothes place that had opened up a few weeks ago, and then she'd dragged him to a huge club she'd discovered that month-she loved it particularly for the shiny, authentic disco ball on the cieling. How could you pass up something like that?

They'd gotten home in the AM, and she'd let him crash on her couch because he'd looked so exhausted, she'd claimed. They hadn't woken up 'till early noon the next day, and caught the late Sunday mass in Spanish, so Abby had Tony translate for her, and they'd garnered odd looks-what with her spectacular outfit and his sweats.

Then they'd had brunch, and then a Stasky and Hutch marathon to end the day, before he went home and passed out on his own bed for the first time in a little more than a month.

His alarm clock read 6:38am. He figured he might as well get in the shower, get dressed, pack his backpack, and be out by 7am, giving him more than enough time to grab something to eat before he was expected at his desk. He realized he'd only eaten that one meal at Abbys home yesterday and was starving right about now.

On his way to work, Tony wolfed down a bagel and a delightful frappuccino from Starbucks. Seeing Gibbs as he exited the elevator, Tony handed him a styrophom container filled to the brim with his preferred black no sugar mix.

Gibbs could have kissed the man. So he did.

"Woah, someone's gotten daring. In plain view Jethro?" Tony blinked, but not at all shying from another well-placed kiss on his lips. Yeah, he couldn't deny it. He'd definately missed this place.

"Nobody around DiNozzo; clock just hit seven."

Tony realized he was right; his clock must've been off, he thought. But before he could come up with a snappy retort, Gibbs dragged him back into the elevator he'd just stepped foot out of a few minutes ago and hit the emergency stop button.

"One of these days you're going to break it, Boss. I'm surprised Madame Shepard hasn't caught on to-" Tonys' rambling were cut off when Gibbs crushed their lips together, pressed his body up against the side of the elevator with his own. He kissed him quite senseless, feeling him up through his clothes.

Tony melted into Gibbs' hands; they were good for much more than sanding boats, that was for sure. "Boss, not here." he panted, feeling himself go stiff, as Gibbs continued to rub against him, eliciting a strangled groan from his senior field agent. "Jesus, Gibbs." Tonys head flew back, when he felt Gibbs' hand reach into his pants, stroking what was not meant to be stroked in the workplace.

The elevator light went on, indicating someone was calling down the elevator impatiently, and it was about to override the emergency stop soon. Gibbs gave on final squeeze, making DiNozzo whimper, as he zipped up his agents pants and regained composure.

"You suck." Tony growled, glad he'd worn his black slacks, the ones that better hid his hard-on.

"My house, after work. We'll finish this." Gibbs said easily, hiding a smirk.

Tony and Gibbs had been messing around on and off for the past few months already. It was always at Gibbs house, anytime Tony initiated one of their "encounters" he always made sure it was at his Boss' home, and not his, and so far, Jethro hadn't questioned it.

It had all started after a tough case; Gibbs had been miserable and drunk, Tony had been available and drunk. They'd made it work. The morning after it had been surprisingly easy to get along with his Boss-not like they'd just fucked or anything-oh wait, they had.

Tony had stuck around and made a big breakfast, a lot of coffee, and told Gibbs flat out he didn't want a relationship. He'd said, "Rule twelve forbids it and I'm not into dating anyway, so how about a bunch of casual sex, cause I don't know about you, but last night was amazing."

Gibbs had had a weird look on his face for a second before gulping down the rest of his coffee and nodding. "Sounds good to me." he'd said, and they'd spent the rest of that Saturday together, watching tv from Gibbs black and white set in the basement, while sanding the boat, with very blase', mind-blowing sex in between.

Thinking back, he'd felt like a teenager that day, a teen who'd just discovered sex and Jesus Christ they'd mounted eachother like rabbits off their ritalin meds.

And well, they'd just continued as such afterward. There was never an awkward moment in their newfound relationship, none that he could think of anyway. It was all the great parts of a relationship without any of the drama and sharing that came with an actual relationship.

Certainly Gibbs felt likewise.

A/N: Haven't stopped working on my other story (Life As We Knew It) in case anyone's wondering, but will be working on these two simultaneously from now on. If anybody likes this one, hit the little review button, see if I should continue with this story?


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N: Took the kiddies (I babysit) out to play in the park, scraped my knee running after them(never give a kid sugar and expect them not to act their age!), I am exhausted and we're all starving and waiting for our pizza delivery to get here so we can pig out! So whilst waiting I finished writing the second chapter to this story while the kids were all tuckered out and passed out(my favorite part of the day...six year-olds are relentless!). :D Hope you guys like it? REVIEW! Makes my day everytime! :)**

**Two**.

A week and two cases later, Gibbs and Tony had found themselves alone in the elevator on a Monday morning, once again. And Gibbs broke the news. "We have to stop this; I'm seeing someone."

And Tony, he nodded, made conversation, asked about the lucky gal, wondered out loud if she had red hair-"You're a sucker for redheads, Boss." he'd said, a playful grin on his face.

And Gibbs couldn't have been more frustrated. Yes, he was seeing someone else right now. Yes, she was a redhead, and quite a stunning one, at that. So why wasn't he thrilled about the aspect of his potential lover? Her name was Faith, they'd met during the weekend; she was small and soft and she wanted a relationship and a loyal partner and stability. She was the opposite of Tony right down to gender.

So, when he'd decided to tell Tony they couldn't fuck between cases anymore, he'd expected more than idle conversation and a smile. He'd been expecting Tony to get angry or sad or-well, did it really matter now? Tony hadn't displayed any of those feelings, he'd been a blank canvas and for some reason that had bugged the hell out of Gibbs and he couldn't place his finger on why?

"We've got a dead marine; killed in her own home. We're headed out." Tony announced, everyone on Team Gibbs rushing to grab their packs and head to the elevator. It was always cramped in there, considering their team had one extra agent than any other team at NCIS. The reason for this, being that Director Shepard had made them take Ziva in, as a favor to a friend-they'd been miffed at first, but Ziva had been a good addition to the team, and they liked her.

Gibbs was the last to follow the team into the elevator, a strange thing in itself, seeing as how he was always the first on the elevator.

"You okay Boss?" Tony asked discretely as the two entered the elevator with the other three members of the team.

"Yeah DiNozzo." he replied gruffly, harsher than he'd intended, but his agent either didn't seem to notice or really care. And that bothered him even more.

**NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS**

You couldn't tell the bits and pieces of limb and flesh and the splattered blood had once made up a breathing, living human body.

Not the most ideal way to start off a Monday morning, surely.

Tim had puked-with every right, as some of the dead marines skin had been cooked in the microwave-the smell was nauseating. Everyone wore a mask after that to enter the scene, and the team had to be extra careful not to step in any blood-it was practically _everywhere_.

"Watashi no musume!" an elderly Asian woman, small and frail looking, was sobbing outside of the crime scene, taking hold of officers' arms, trying to explain what had happened, but to no avail, no one understood a word coming out of her mouth. She was covered in the dead marines' blood.

Tony felt for the woman. He'd been in her same situation before; it was why he'd learned to speak as many languages as he could, as fluently as he could at a rather young age.

"I'm going to go talk to the woman." he told his Boss, when he'd spotted her.

Gibbs rolled his eyes, "DiNozzo, the woman speaks Chinese, I don't think-"

"Japanese, Boss," he corrected, "and I took a course over the summer." Tony lied blatantly. Japanese was practically his native tongue, after all. Not waiting for a response, he walked over to the distraught woman.

He knelt down next to her, "Obasan, watashi wa koko ni nani ga okotta ka shitte oku hitsuyō ga sumimasen, shite kudasai."

The woman quickly grasped his arm, "Sore wa osoroshiidesu!" she sobbed.

"Since when, pray tell, does _DiNozzo _know Japanese?" Kate grimaced, taking her camera and walking back into the scene, to continue photographing.

Kate was admittedly miffed she hadn't been the one to shine in her Bosses presence. But who besides Ziva (surprisingly she hadn't known what the woman had been speaking either) would know some foreign language that helped them communicate with the only witness in their case? _Apparently Tony_, Kate thought with a dark frown.

"If she hadn't been killed in her own home, this woman never would've been identifiable." McGee cringed, as he bagged and tagged evidence. It was discouraging, to say the least, to see what human were capable of sometimes-and disturbing, definately disturbing. Tim had been trying hard not to puke again, although nobody had made fun of him for it, which he was grateful for.

Kate had described the scene as 'disgusting', while Ziva had grimaced and shaken her head, calling the whole thing a 'messy affair'. Gibbs had merely frowned darkly. And Tony had treated the entire thing like it was no different from any other scene they'd ever come across. Tim took that reaction as perhaps the odd one out of the bunch. No sane person looked at the gore they had displayed before them and went about their business, not blinking an eye.

However, when Tony walked back into the scene, after having talked to the small woman outside the house, he looked absolutely livid. "Kanojo wa ninshin shite ita!" he told the Boss, not realizing he'd spoken in another language until Gibbs arched a brow and asked for a translation. Tony shook his head, "She was pregnant, Boss." he announced. Tony had killed_ a lot _of people in his line of 'work', but like Gibbs, he had his own rules: Pregnant women were an exception if ever a target.

Amy Grisom had been the one to make Tony re-write his rule book. She'd been on a killing streek; twelve prominent New Yorkers in span of two weeks, very dangerous and rather unstable. Tony had been hired to take her out. Gun to her head, safety off, ready to pull the trigger, and she'd sobbed "I'm pregnant!"

It had been enough to make him pause and swear. It was the first time he'd interacted with a potential corpse. Gun to her back, hidden by her heavy jacket, they'd gone to a twenty-four hour seven-eleven, and bought a pregnancy test. Tony had heaved a sigh; wasn't exactly how he pictured this moment. Buying a pregnancy test, not for his girlfriend, not for his wife, not even for a close friend, but for a ruthless serial killer he was supposed to have shot in the face with his colt already.

He'd even watched her take the test-they'd both had the decency to look a little shamed in the act. Those ten minutes had been the longest ten minutes Tont thought he'd ever experienced. And then the little pink plus line had appeared on the white stick and yeah, Amy was indeed pregnant. So, he'd done the one thing that had been against his Program training, and turned her into the feds.

She'd be in jail for the rest of her life, but given her mental status, the death penalty would be out of the question, and her baby would live. Amy Grisom had thanked him.

He hadn't done it for Amy, but for the life growing inside of her; the infant was innocent, even if it's mother hadn't been.

So, to think someone could come into an innocent persons home and kill her and her unborn child? It really did have to be the definition of despicable.

"Jesus Christ." Gibbs reacted to the news.

Tony nodded, "Ayame Uzumi, the woman I just spoke to, she's the dead marines' mother; she came here from Japan to be there for her daughter when she gave birth. Corporal Yumi Uzumis' due date was just four days away." he continued grimly. "Ayame said there were maybe six men, all dressed in black sweaters and ski-masks, wearing leather gloves, from what she can remember. They didn't speak out loud, they communicated by sign language and gestures, is what Ayame says she saw. That's about it, she's too hysterical to say much else. They didn't hurt her physically, I had the paramedics check her, and I had two officers drive her back to NCIS for protection. They might not have tried to kill her, but I'm not willing to take any chances." he finished consicely.

Gibbs nodded in agreement. "Good work DiNozzo."

**NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS**

Six hours later, in the bullpen, they were still nowhere near closing the case. There were zero suspects. Corporal Uzumi had been good at her job, didn't have any enemies who'd want her dead-certainly not to the extent in which she had been murdered.

Yumi Uzumis' husband was shipped over in Iraq right now and had absolutely no idea his wife and child had been slaughtered-not yet anyway. Gibbs and Tony would have to stand in front of a monitor and tell the man the awful news. Jethro was _not _looking forward to it at all.

"You ready?" he asked his second.

Tony nodded. "Ready as I'll ever be."

They stepped in front of the monitor, Gibbs signaling the guy with the headset to put them on, and waited 'till a fair-skinned man in camaflouge appeared on the screen with a General at his side.

Gibbs took one final deep breath. "Corporal Lane, I am sorry to inform you of your wife and childs' deaths."

As expected, the corporal was in pieces. He got down on his knees, started sobbing, calling out his wifes' name; the General took pitty on his devastated corporal, tried to comfort him, to no avail.

Tony was glaring at the screen now. Something about this was off. Tony was a world-class liar-you could even call it pathalogical to a point. So he in turn could tell when someone else wasn't telling the truth, or as the case seemed to be, hidding something.

"I'm really truly sorry for your loss Corporal Lane. But we'd like to ask you a couple of questions while we still have you." Tony decided to go on his instincts and hoped like hell it didn't come back to bite him in the ass. Gibbs looked at his agent strangely; it wouldn't be the first time DiNozzo did something unpredictable, and like all the other times, Gibbs trusted him to know what he was doing and played along.

"Your mother in law was at the house when the attack occured; she informed us that there were ten men, approximately, she saw at least two of their faces and is with us now, with our profiler, trying to identify the two males. I'd just like to know why you look so genuinely shocked now, but a minute ago, when my Boss adressed you, your reaction was more-or-less an act?"

The man blinked, "W-what are you insinuating?" he was infuriated. "I loved my wife!" he yelled.

"Went to past-tense pretty quickly, didn't you Corporal?" Tony tilted his head sideways. "For most grieving people, it takes a long time before they can stop reffering to their loved one in present tense, as if they were still alive. But you did it quite easily just now, huh? Almost like you already knew, even before Gibbs here told you about Corporal Uzumi-"

"Corporal Lance!" The man shouted, "Her last name was supposed to be Lance!" he insisted.

"But it wasn't, it was Uzumi, Corporal Uzumi." Tony went on.

"Shut up! Why are you lying to me? There weren't ten men, it was six, why the hell-"

Gibbs caught on. "How could you possibly know that fact?"

"N-no, that's not-you tricked me! It wasn't supposed to be this way!" He pounded his fists. "She was so Goddamn self-sufficient all the time! Wouldn't take my last name when we got married, acted like "one of the guys" on tour-one woman with that many men on a ship? Of course she let them fuck her! That thing inside of her was not mine!" he seethed.

Things had certainly taken a whole different turn.

**NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS NCIS**

"How'd you know he was fibbing?" Gibbs shoved Tony up against the elevator a second time since he'd come back from "Florida".

"He had obvious tells. He looked a lot like an amatuer actor waiting for his lines to come up in the play suring rehearsals." Tony explained easily, as his superior made markings on his neck, hand reaching under his shirt.

"Good catch." Jethro murmured-they'd been able to close up the case, however tragic it may have ended up, in the span of one workday. Usually, the first suspect would be the husband, but who'd have thought of the possibility when said husband had been stationed in Iraq for the past month?

"Thanks." Tony licked his lips, "What happened to the red head?" he asked, as Gibbs unzipped his pants.

"Didn't work out; I forgot to call and cancel dinner earlier tonight, got pissed and told me no one stood her up, that things were over between us." He surmised, making quick work of running his hands all over his senior field agents muscled, lean body.

"Harsh." Tony panted, spreading his legs further apart, as Gibbs went down on his knees in front of him. Tony realized this was a "please take me back" blow job, and couldn't help but smirk. Actions spoke louder than words, and holy hell was Gibbs a man of action.

Tony had been a little put-off when Jethro had called off their fuck-buddy system that morning, thinking he'd have to wait 'till after the man had dated this new broad, proposed, married, and consequently divorced her, before he'd be able to roll around in bed-or where ever it was they managed to find themselves at that moment-again.

Tony didn't mind casual sex-it was the "with a stranger" part that made him paranoid. He was from the Program, after all. One could never be too careful. And he trusted Gibbs, as much as one person could trust another.

Gibbs had him in his mouth now, was humming, the vibrations completely rocking him to his core. "God." he moaned, thrusting his hips forward. Oh, and there was that. Gibbs' mouth was much too talented, his fingers much too skilled, to let it go to waste on a woman-

No offense to the rest of the female population, of course.

**A/N: BTW! I apologize for any mistakes I made when it comes to the marine, corporal, general, etc. stuff...I seriously don't know anything about ranks, positions, or even if they all belong in the same category...-.- So I apologize now before anyone tries to tear me to shreds over it! R&R please! Thanks. :)**


	3. Chapter 3

**A.N. Haven't updated this in what seems like forever and I apologize for that! Here's chapter numero tres! **

**Three**.

Being stuck in the middle of nowhere with Gibbs hadn't been in his plans that weekend at all.

Being chased through the woods in the dark by six armed men, he could've definitely done without.

Being shot by one of the six men before they'd lost the sons of bitches, now that was the kicker to an all around fantastic Saturday night, Tony thought, wincing as he pressed his ripped jacket sleeve on the nasty gash against his side to stem the bleeding.

Gibbs saw the awkward position and took the torn cloth into his own hands and pressed it up against Tonys' wound. "Does your phone have any signal?" Gibbs asked his second in command and sometimes-lover.

He checked his cell for the millionth time since they'd gotten stuck in this predicament, and sighed. "Still nothing, and the battery's starting to die."

"Damn it." Gibbs sighed. He always forgot to charge his own cellular phone, and it had died three hours ago. _This heat is unbearable_, he thought, as a bead of sweat trickled down his neck and onto the collar of his shirt.

"By daylight at least, the team should realize we're missing and come looking for us. Hopefully our GPS in the car is still functional and McGee can track the car down where we left it and they'll come to the conclusion we're somewhere in this hellhole and send out a search party." Tony surmised, trying to sound positive in a moment of hopelessness.

Gibbs nodded, wanting to believe that it would go as such and that it wouldn't be a case of 'easier said than done' this time. Even then, though, daylight was still at least a good ten hours away.

They'd been in their hotel room, sometime around 7 o'clock, looking through evidence and files of their latest case in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, when Tony had caught something suspicious in the paperwork of one of the marines who'd worked alongside their deceased John Doe. It didn't seem like much, probably a filing error, and Gibbs didn't think it was necessary to bring along the rest of his team. The three women, Abby, Ziva, and Kate, had been complaining about how exhausted they all were, and Gibbs was sure that at this point they were passed out in their own room. McGee, Palmer and Ducky were sharing another room, and he was sure they were all soundly asleep by now too.

It had been a long day, after all. If anything, they were just going to be checking out some real estate. Nothing two trained federal agents couldn't handle.

But the shit had hit the fan damn quick.

Instead of finding a building, they'd ended up driving into a semi-deserted part of the town, where nothing but woods and dirt surrounded you for a quite a few miles. Just as they figured it a cold-lead, and Gibbs had been about to turn the car around, a hail of bullet shattered their windshield to pieces. Smoke was suddenly coming out of the hood of the van.

One hour and an epic shoot out later, the two agents found themselves running like hell across the woods, in a zig zag motion, out of bullets, their guns quite useless, with zero phone signal.

Tony found a large crevice in the bark of a worn old tree, covered in moss, and made them take cover, and rest. Two minutes later, they held their breaths, completely petrified as the six men, one by one passed their location, and continued to run in search of them in these infinite woods.

"Call the team." Gibbs had panted out.

Tony scrambled for his phone a minute before checking to see again if they had any signal. A fruitless endeavor. "Nada." he'd sighed.

"You think we could risk it going back for the car and getting help?" Gibbs wondered out loud.

Tony shook his head, "I only counted five when they ran past us, I'm sure the remaining one is watching the van, in case we got that idea. And more likely than not, unlike us, he's heavily armed. We'd be gunned down before reaching the steering wheel."

"Are you sure?" Gibbs asked; he'd barely seen the men in the dark, much less been able to count them as they ran by, their footsteps mixing together in his ears.

Tony nodded, "Yeah. Look, our best option right now is to find a better hiding spot, they're not going to give up, they're going to search the whole area 'till they find us, they might interrogate us, and then they'll definitely kill us." That's how he would have done it in the Program. But he'd been in this situation before, too. The hunter and the hunted. It was a fun game, usually, but only when he was on the other team. But he'd never tell his Boss this, of course.

It was nearly midnight by the time they'd found an adequate hiding spot, erasing their tracks and trying to mislead their antagonists.

"Take off your shirt."

"Whoa, I like adventurous sex too, but maybe wait 'till we're not being chased after by a bunch of psychos wielding guns, yeah, Boss?" Tony said, as he sat down, completely exhausted, his side starting to burn.

Gibbs rolled his eyes, head-slapped him gently. "Get your mind outta' the gutter, DiNozzo, I gotta' check that gash on your side."

"You know, a proper bedside manner so wouldn't kill you Boss." he started taking off his tattered windbreaker and the shirt underneath, wincing when he had to lift his arms to do so and it only served to aggravate his wound all the more.

"Wouldn't kill you to shut up for longer than a minute." Gibbs retorted halfheartedly, scowling as he inspected his senior field agent. The bullet had only grazed the side of his ribcage, but had done plenty of damage, and even though there wasn't anything lodged in there, the wound was still pretty deep. There was a high possibility that with their current conditions, Tony could get an infection. Gibbs was glaring at the gash, almost as if by giving it a death stare, it would frighten and heal quicker. At the very least, it had stopped bleeding.

With the moon shinning down on them, through the small slits in the moss surrounding their new hiding place, Jethro could see Tonys' very pale skin, and hoped it was just the reflection of the moon playing tricks on his eyes.

They decided to take shifts, one slept while the other took watch, and vice versa. Tony took the first shift. He stared at his Boss a minute, as he slept very soundly, in spite of their less-than-desirable situation, and smiled slightly. That was Gibbs for ya'. He waited for another few minutes, 'till he was sure the older man was definitely passed out. "I'll be right back." he whispered, if only to ease some of the guilt.

Tony checked to see if Gibbs had his knife on him, for protection, in the small percent chance that he didn't make it back, and silently left their hidey hole, once he was sure the older man was safe. He slid his own knife from his belt, and another from his pant-leg, this one larger and sharper and definitely more deathly.

These sons of bitches had messed with the wrong person.

**A.N. Review and Tony lives :D Ha hah, just kidding, I'd never kill Tony...except in that one fic ._. Any who! Hope you liked it! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Four. **

Kate noted the dented roof, the shattered windshield and the flaming front of the car immediately. McGee pointed out the splatter of blood inside the car, on the front seat with ill thoughts of his Boss and Tony injured, dragging themselves along the forest, attempting to run from the people who'd shot at them.

When the team, plus several other policemen in their search party spread out and began to scavenge across the forest floor, in hopes of finding Gibbs and DiNozzo, they instead came across the dead body of Corporal James Durant.

"Is this not our dead marines' room mate?" Ziva wondered out loud, not bothering to bend down and check the mans pulse. There was a large fist sized bullet hole in his throat and the corpse was starting to smell, an indication that Durant had been dead for more than a couple of hours at this point.

Kate nodded, "Definitely." she pointed to the cabin way up ahead as she spotted it. "Looks like he was running away. Gibbs and Tony are probably in there as hostages."

McGee and Ziva secured their weapons and trailed behind Kate as they headed for the ominous cabin, two other uniformed officers following the teams lead cautiously. They came upon yet another dead corporal before even reaching the cabin. He was clutching a heavy duty gun, a bullet hole-also the size of a fist-on the side of his head. Liquid and brains and blood leaked from the mortal wound. "Holy shit." one of the officers muttered.

The two officers snuck around the back door and Gibbs team broke in through the front door, shouting 'NCIS!', guns held high.

"Oh my God." Kate had been trained in the field plenty well never to let her guard down, but she couldn't help but drop her weapon to the floor upon the sight that greeted them when they entered the cabin.

Six men lay dead across the room. It looked as if they'd all had their guns drawn aiming at each other at one point, except two, who had apparently stabbed one another.

"They must have gone mad..." Ziva uttered.

"Did they...did they really just kill _each other_?" McGee cringed.

"That's what it looks like." Kate regained her composure, picked up her discarded weapon off the floor, just as the two officers came in from the other room.

"Clear in the kitch-what the _hell_?" the officer gawked, after stumbling into the bloody room.

Kates head shot up. "No trace that agents Gibbs and DiNozzo were here?"

The other officer shook his head, "No ma'am."

The walkie talkie at Kates hip started sending through static, then a voice. "Special agent Todd?"

She quickly answered, aware of her team members anxiously leaning in behind her. "Speaking; did Team B find anything relevant?" she got right down to business.

"We've located your missing agents, the ambulance is waiting out on the road now, one of them is wounded, but not fatally. We're leading the men back now."

Three simultaneous sighs of relief could be heard from the agents listening on the other end. "Thank you Officer Jenkins, we need to call in reinforcements. We've got eight dead corporals on our hands back here at the cabin."

Two hours later they were back in civilization-a hospital, to be specific. Gibbs had been admitted purely for the sake of getting an IV in him to compensate for the dehydration. Tony was admitted for the same reason, that and the fact that he needed stitches for the gash across his abdomen, as well.

The three remaining members, plus Abby, Ducky, and Palmer, were all seated in Gibbs room, where he lay, disgruntled in a hospital bed with an IV attached to his wrist and a heart monitor-just for precautions sake, the doctors had said.

Just as Gibbs was complaining about not needing to be here, a nurse brought Tony in on a wheelchair, which he was telling her would look great with some flames painted on the back.

"Your roomie for the rest of the evening, Tony." the nurse introduced, as McGee and Palmer helped the injured senior field agent up onto the bed. She took the wheelchair with her on her way out, winking at Tony blatantly.

"Charming the staff already?" Kate rolled her eyes.

Abby curled up at the agents side on the large hospital bed next to Gibss' and smooched his cheeks. "Why would you go and get yourself _shot_? I was worried sick about you guys!"

Tony put an arm around the Goth and smiled. "I'm sorry for getting shot Abby."

"Good." she pouted, tucking her head firmly against his breast bone.

"How did you guys find us?" Gibbs inquired, feeling a lot better now that he knew Tony wasn't in harms way.

"We woke up and realized that you two were no longer in your room. We each tried your cell phones with no luck. McGee tried to locate their signals but there was none. Finally, Abby located the GPS in the car and that lead us here. We called a search party after we saw the wreckage." Ziva surmised concisely.

"You guys should have told someone where you were going so late at night." Kate reprimanded the two, as if they were children, hands on her hips.

"I wanted to but Gibbs was all macho man and said 'We got this'." Tony said, in a bad imitation of Gibbs, smirking broadly when Gibbs glared at him gently from his bed.

"Lucky I can't reach you from here DiNozzo." he growled, only half-meaning it.

"Tonys' hunch cracked the case wide open." McGee commented. "The Corporals were all in on our dead marines death. In fact, two others died in their barracks in the last three years, a few other men injured-it was supposedly hazing gone too far."

"What I do not understand is why they would kill each other like that? Two of them fought with knives, one slicing the others' neck just as he embedded the knife in his chest, no? And then the two outside, one running from the scene, the other wanting to stop him shot him point blank, and then committing suicide? It does not make sense to me. The other four men also shot at each other sporadically." Ziva questioned as she recalled the details of the scene.

Gibbs frowned. "It's a damn good thing for us that they did, but you're right. It doesn't really make much sense."

Kate shrugged. "They obviously went too far when it came to hazing, maybe it started as a knife fight between two of their men and eventually just escalated to a full-blown killing spree amongst the group? Not to mention they had two feds outside, and knew more police would sooner or later get there and they'd be screwed anyway."

Tony silently sat there, Abby wrapped in his arms, as the team, and Ducky too, discussed the oddness of the case. Tony knew exactly what had happened to those men. Seeing eight men instead of the six he'd initially thought to encounter was a surprise, yes, but not an impossible task to carry out.

He'd snuck in, unseen by the men, who were all armed or cleaning their weapons in the living room of their little cabin out in the forest, loudly gloating about their previous kills, about how they'd hunt down the two agents and keep their heads as trophies of their glory.

He hid out in the kitchen until he saw two of the men exit the cabin, their large guns at their sides, to guard against any threats outside the cabin. Waited a bit longer until two more men decided to get up and hit the sack, walking into the bedrooms at the side of the cabin.

With four men left, Tony decided to strike. Just then one man, a big burly man with a bald head and marine tattoos all over his muscled arms stood from the couch, gun in hand, stood up to get something in the kitchen. That's when everything kind of just happened all at once in a blur of frenzied activity. Bloody frenzied activity.

He wasn't a huge fan of sneaking about when he went for the kill, but this was the man he'd just heard talking about what a good beating he gave his wife last week when dinner wasn't on the table upon his arrival-so Tony couldn't bring himself to feel too much remorse over it.

Stabbing someone in the trachea without getting any blood on you is hard to do, but Tony managed. What he failed to do was keep the dying man quiet.

He sunk his blade into the second man who rounded the corner, took his weapon, and shot the third, then just as he shot the fourth, two alarmed corporals ran into the room, awakened by the gunfire, their own guns raised. Tony shot them both the moment they set foot into the blood bath. Hoping the other two guarding the cabin hadn't heard much and run off, Tony had dropped the weapon, picked up another, his bare fingers not touching the pistol, and strolled off to finish the job.

One of the men was asleep just outside the cabin, and Tony awed at what a sound sleeper he must be, to have slept through all the screaming and gun shots so easily. Killing the man whilst he slept seemed cowardly to Tony, so he nudged him. Nothing. Nudged him again. This time the man fell over, and Tonys' eyes widened a fraction. "Oh my." he said, thinking he sounded very Ducky-like for a moment there.

The man had shot himself on the side of his head, Tony saw now, as he leaned in close to inspect the heavily bleeding wound. "Well, at least one of you had enough shame to do it." he thought out loud, looking at the large pistol the man was gripping in one hand.

The other man spotted him from a few yards away, and immediately started shooting at Tony. It was pure luck the guys' aim left a lot to be desired, that not one bullet pierced his skin. Tony took the dead mans lifeless arm, aimed, and pressed the trigger another time with the corporals finger. "Bullseye." Tony muttered under his breath when the angry man went down after the first shot.

He'd then taken a couple of hours to rearrange each body just so, make sure to clean up the kitchen, wipe any traces of evidence he had ever even been here. Wiped down all the guns, shoved them into the hands of the corporals instead, and snuck out the back, just as the sun was setting. It was a nice view, surprisingly not clouded by the tall trees in the forest, Tony thought, as he made his way back to Gibbs, who he'd hoped hadn't woken up anytime during that night.

"What do you think Tony?" Abby asked curiously, dragging him out of his thoughts.

"I think Kates' right. They were all probably anxious and panicked about getting caught if reinforcements showed up in the morning and decided to shut each other up the only way they knew how."

Yeah, that was a neat concise story. They'd killed each other in a fit of temporary madness. It wasn't unheard of. Tony leaned into his pillows and listened as the conversation continued.

He'd killed seven men last night. They may have deserved it, sure, and it was probably their only chance at survival, had the men gotten to them before the team had. But Tony knew he was in the wrong, even if some would call what he'd done a gray area between good and bad.

McGee had freaked out and panicked and felt so much remorse after learning he might have killed someone.

So why was it that lately, taking a human life came as easy to him as breathing?


End file.
